Big-name tech conferences scheduled for the rest of the year draw thousands of people to convention centers in Detroit, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Attendees leave with new technological know-how, extensive business networks, and possibly even Covid-19.
Security consultant Paul Grabo believes he has contracted COVID-19 at the RSA conference in San Francisco in June. Organizers are asking attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result upon arrival at the Safety Technology event.
Grabow, who bought a one-day pass just for the viewing room floor, said he expected RSA staff to keep crowds from forming around the booth. Instead, attendees are allowed to gather together to approach the presenters.
Grabow said he was vaccinated and usually wore a mask. However, he tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend after the show. Due to the respiratory system, the doctor prescribed an antiviral drug called Paxovid.
He experienced shortness of breath, loss of appetite and severe fatigue. “It’s brutal,” he said. “You sleep a lot, but you can’t seem to get your energy together.”
Grabow’s wife also came down with COVID-19, but her symptoms were mild. In retrospect, Grabow takes it upon himself to spend hours on a crowded exhibit floor and assume that RSA will enforce crowd control.
There is only so much conference organizers can and are willing to do to minimize the risk.
Paul GrabowSecurity consultant and RSA conference 2022 participant
“There’s only so much conference organizers can do and are willing to do to reduce the risk,” he said.
In a statement, the RSA acknowledged that attendees had tested positive for Covid-19, but said it had not collected information about the source of the conference. Instead, the Expo encouraged returnees to test for the virus, watch for symptoms and “make responsible health choices.”
Experts agree that the best immunizations and booster shots can significantly reduce the risk of hospitalization and death. But an infected worker returning from conference parties and meetings can spread COVID-19 to colleagues in the office, reducing productivity as other workers recover.
Then there is the threat of long-term effects known as long-term covid-19. Symptoms, which include depression, shortness of breath, fatigue and headaches, can last for several weeks – even months. A recent study was published in a medical journal The Lancet 1 in 8 people infected with covid-19 experience prolonged covid symptoms.
The health of conference participants must be a priority. The most successful companies see COVID-19 not as an isolated event, but as a springboard for developing disease prevention plans for future outbreaks or severe flu seasons.
“The best practices that our clients are implementing is that we have COVID with us,” said Matthew Bradley, senior vice president of Crisis24, a Montreal-based risk management company.
Teaching Covid-19 safety
The most effective plan encourages employees to take all the precautions recommended by the government. Mandatory behavior at a conference does not work because employers cannot monitor compliance during a tech conference.
Also, because of medical privacy laws, managers have no chance of knowing if their employees need to be vaccinated or have medical conditions that make them vulnerable to chronic illness. It’s important to cover both options in an educational session so that people can make their own decisions about whether to attend an event, Bradley said.
Companies should base security recommendations on conference risk assessments. Recommending social distancing or wearing a mask will depend on whether conference organizers require vaccination certification. Other factors include the size and duration of the event, and whether the activities are outdoors, in small rooms, or in large, airy halls.
Risk management experts recommend that companies have a Covid-19 safety plan in place for employees going to technology conferences.
Protecting employees during conferences requires a communication channel that keeps them up-to-date on changes in local virus-related restrictions. Wearing a mask at home, for example, may change from mandatory to recommended depending on local infection rates.
Companies should not expect conference organizers to have adequate safeguards. According to Sumi Ilempati, CEO of Cleared4, a Dallas-based conference security specialist, the regulations focus on the impact on attendance.
Also, conference organizers cannot control people’s behavior in restaurants or private meetings.
“[The responsibility] It’s transferred to the companies in attendance, but also the overall collective awareness of the attendees,” Eachandumpathy said.
In fact, people returning from the Cisco Live conference in June reported testing positive for Covid-19 after the show. In an emailed statement, Cisco did not directly address the public reports. Instead, he said, attendees need to be fully vaccinated.
“The health and safety of our employees, customers and partners is always our top priority,” the company said.
Abbas Moledina, CFO of London-based startup YouMakr.ai, has not come down with Covid-19 since attending the April ASU+GSV meeting in San Diego. He avoids crowds at educational technology events and prefers outdoor activities.
Moledina, who explained the vaccination, weighed the risk against the importance of the event. YouMakr.ai executives appeared on the show and met with venture capitalists. Also, the conference provided an opportunity to meet development partners and sales leaders of cloud-based software that helps people with writing.
“Ultimately, based on our assessment, it was within our risk appetite,” Moledina said.
Protection offices
Companies should treat people returning from conferences as likely to be carriers of the virus, says Crisis24’s Bradley. People who are at risk for Covid-19, who are up-to-date on vaccinations and do not show symptoms of the disease, do not need to stay home, but should be tested. Unvaccinated people should stay home and self-isolate for at least five days, the CDC said.
It is unlikely that companies will be required to navigate the magnitude of the Covid-19 crisis seen in March 2020 when schools, businesses and government agencies closed. Viruses typically evolve to spread easily, but cause less death.
“We expect to have milder disease over time,” said Brian Labus, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The less lethal covid-19 and easy access to vaccines have led them to wear masks or take other precautions to protect themselves from the disease. “People are doing what they did before Covid,” Labus said. “Now it’s seen as normal.”
Fears about Covid-19 have subsided due to vaccines and smaller strains of the virus. But companies can’t be lax if they want regulators and unions to take their responsibility for workers’ health and safety seriously, experts say. Protecting workers from contracting and spreading COVID-19 requires precautions.
Anton Gonsalves is the News Director of Network Media Group. He has deep and extensive experience in tech journalism. He has worked for UBMs since the mid-1990s. Information weekTechWeb and Computer vendor news. He also wrote for Ziff Davis PC Week, IDG’s CSOonline and IBTMedia’s CruxialCIO, and completed all of these by covering startups for Bloomberg News. He began his journalism career at United Press International and worked as a reporter and editor in California, Texas, Kansas and Florida.
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